“You’ll have to check the broadcast on May 13,” he said firmly. “I haven’t even told my wife. I will say that I was surprised by the results and I worked hard.”

Although Jung Joon Ha can afford to play coy now, he revealed that he felt intense nervousness and pressure leading up to the audition.

“After ‘Show Me the Money’ ended, I had so many overwhelming feelings,” he said. “I thought of all the suffering I’d endured. I hadn’t even been able to sleep. Honestly, I was just depressed. After the recording was over, I should have rested, but I kept thinking, ‘How do I do this? What lyrics should I write?’”

He added, “It was like homework. When you write lyrics, it’s comfortable if you feel right away that it’s good, but usually you’re unsure. It was also stressful because it was something I’d never done before. I’ve even done a musical before but I had never been as nervous as I was for ‘SMTM5.’ It was the same feeling as when I thought I was blindfolded in a helicopter on ‘Infinite Challenge.’”

Jung Joon Ha had previously promised to show a new side of himself on the show and told everyone ahead of the audition not to laugh.

“I’d prepared that in advance,” he said. “As I practiced, I kept imagining how the performance would go. I felt that a lot of people would laugh when they saw me. Because of that feeling I thought I had to come in a little more forcefully. I’m sure they could hear me outside the gymnasium.”